M*A*S*H unit already?

So Logan's injury was to his left foot. X-rays were negative. He'll have an MRI later today on what is being called a hyper-extended left foot, and we'll have more information on him tomorrow.

And then, in the bottom of the fifth, crowd favorite Cristian Guzman hit a hard grounder to third base. He tried to bust it out of the box because Cabrera might not have made the backhanded play (which he did) and the ball could have ended up in the corner. But when he started to run, he pulled something (turned out to be a hastring) and he barely made it to first, eliciting (unfair) boos from the crowd.

Guzman: "milde left hamstring strain", according to the club, and will be re-evaluated tomorrow.

And then the Nationals' third reliever of the day -- following Rule 5 pick Levale Speigner (one run in 2-1/3) and lefty Micah Bowie (two runs in an inning including an are-you-kidding-me homer to Dan Uggla) -- Jesus Colome (one of two Jesuses on the roster, even though today is Passover) struck out the first man he faced, threw a strike to Joe Borchard, and then had to call the athletic trainer to the mound. No idea what was going on, but he was doubled-over in apparent pain. He finally threw one warm-up pitch, determined himself to be fine, and retired the next two hitters.

So it's 9-2 Fish with Nationals batting in the bottom of the eighth. Lots of wood to chop here for the print edition of the paper (just $.35), so I may not talk to you till tomorrow. Hope you all had a great afternoon. At least it was sunny.

Forget the game, we knew it would be an interesting season. The SERVICE at the ballpark was LOUSY again? How can you possibly commit yourself to making customers happy while maintaining Aramark as your concession people? Long long lines for sausage, among other things, with plenty of mishaps -- not just crowds -- to blame. Very disheartening.

In the "mezzanine foodcourt" they ran out of roast beef in the top of the 2nd inning and also chicken and ran out of hot sauce for the wings as well. Fine management. Guess they did'nt expect a crowd or a hungry crowd considering the game was at lunch time. What incompetence. Endless lines for anything else. Slower than in '05. Pathetic.

I'm beginning to think that DC has some of the worst and whiny fans in sports. If you don't like the food and service, bring your own sandwiches into the game. If you don't like the lines, either leave earlier or don't come at all.

And if you're going to boo a player for getting injured on a sharp grounder, then please, just stay home.

When the boos started raining down on Guzman after he started hobbling to third, I was embarrassed. Give me a break, the only people who job out grounders are pitchers and prima donnas. Guzman is neither; he's a hard worker who had the worst year of his career in 2005.

He fought back from missing a year and we have the nerve to boo after he comes up lame? That was just pathetic.

For his sake, I hope he recovers quickly and busts out of his slump. For our sake, with fans like that--who boo on an injury and sound like a bunch of whiny teenagers because their food was cold--I'm not sure what we deserve.

Well i had a great time despite the Nats losing. Didn't get the exact food you wanted, lines were "too long"? That's going to happen when you have over 40,000 in attendance. Maybe if you go to the game on Wednesday, i'm sure there won't be long lines and that you'll be able to get the exact food you want. Sorry, i'm just tired of the negativity. It's Opening Day, you got a free hat, the Nats lost, yes, but the weather couldn't have been more beautiful, but it seems there's always something to complain about.

I think that not everybody knew Guzman was injured. I was in the upper deck and didn't notice him come up lame, and neither did the people around me. We thought he'd just had another weak groundout like we've seen so many times before. I wouldn't put this on the fans. They cheered Patterson for his effort and gave a great ovation for Nook Logan when he got injured. I think quite a few people didn't realize he'd been injured.

And i agree with the few posters before me regarding the complaining. Lighten up people. Go have a beer or margarita, something i had no trouble getting today. Not everything is going to go exactly the way you want it to and you should just accept it and try to enjoy the experience of a lovely spring day at the ballpark.

It was really great to be back at RFK for baseball again today, but I have to echo the complaints about the preparation of the stadium crew. The lines were horrendous (my wife missed three innings while waiting in line for a sausage and hotdog), condiments were missing everywhere, beer taps went dry, and there were NO vendors of any sort in the upper deck. I am sure that everything will be fine when there are only 20k people there tomorrow, but I found it completely disappointing after all the talk of customer service and the fan experience coming from Mr. Kasten. The preparations looked as if nothing at all had been learned from the previous two years at RFK, and that is just hard to understand.

Patterson gave up 6 in 3 2/3, while the bullpen gave up 3 in 6 innings. I think Patterson was not yet ready. This is not surprising. He had so few spring training innings because the Nationals had to evaluate so many pitchers. This is especially significant after his coming off a long layoff after surgery.

I wonder how the number of innings pitched by Patterson in Spring training compares with other number one starters.

Someone may already have answered this in a previous post. But I had heard during the telecast yesterday that they were going to put cherry blossom trees in the new stadium. Can someone tell me why because they will only be in bloom for end of March beginning of April and the Nationals will be starting on the road to start the season most of the time so they will be long gone and are they just going to be obstructing our view of the field? Great idea but doesn't sound well thought out.

is it whiney to suggest that the concession stands actual ice the beer before the game? or how about that the people serving the beer are properly equiped with bottle openers for those fancy new bud bottles? seriously, these two women at the bud stand had to take a bottle opener from a patron so they could open the beers. lines are to be expected w/ a big crowd, but not being prepared for even the most obvious situations is sheer incompetance. and running out of food in the second inning? nice job aramark. here's hoping you guys are not a part of the new ball park. and to the stan and the lerners, you'd better take care of the fan experience, because the product on the field certainly isnt going to justify the price of admission.

My family and i had fun at RFK yesterday, and we were in the nosebleeds. Not saying that others didn't have a not-great experience, but in all honesty i had all the beer and food that i wanted and hardly missed any of the game. But that's just me.

While I agree that we all should lessen the griping a bit, I do have one bone to pick --- why the heck did they wait until just before 11am to open the gates to Parking Lot 8? It's Opening Day for crying out loud! We wanted to get there early, have an early lunch (with sandwiches we brought from home), converse with other Nats fans, then get into the ballpark to meet the Nats players handing out the free hats. We got to the end of 395 at around 10:30 and waited and waited and waited as there was no movement in the line to get into the parking lot. I (sort of) understand not opening the lot until two hours before game time, but again, THIS WAS OPENING DAY! It was a glorious day to be at the game and we didn't want to spend a half-hour of it idling in our cars.

Hope Guz is ok. Thought it was lame that some booed him as it was obvious he was hurt. Shame on them.

Maybe Casto gets called up to replace Logan? Maybe the Nats can relax and have fun out there and show all the "experts" that they are all no-nothings.

71-91 this season. Same as last season, but we can hold our heads up high at the end of the season as we watch our young stars beginning to shine throughout the season.

I'm not sure what others were seeing, but the food and vendor service on the 400/500 level was extremely poor. The only thing the vendors in the stands were selling was beer, and i couldn't find a kettle corn stand anywhere, and i LOVE the kettle corn. Well, loved i guess. Just not a very fun experience overall. Good thing i didn't pay much for my ticket.

Yesterday was fun and bittersweet all at the same time. Fun to be playing hooky from work, sitting in the sunshine, drinking beer when I'd normally be staring a computer screen, cheering on my team-- Highlights were the rousing applause for Nick Johnson and Zimm's triple... wow! The concessions stuff-- yeah, typical RFK, but if anyone's been there more than once you should know to brace yourself and prepare mentally for the level of service you'll receive. Of course it should be improved, but don't let it ruin your experience when it hasn't. I made a point to tell the woman who poured my beer that she was doing a great job and to have a good season. Maybe if they get more of that they'll be inspired to do better?

The day was bittersweet for the awful sight of Nook on the ground and Guz--ohh Guz!!--hobbling up the first base line. Not to mention the scoreboard and Patterson struggling from the get-go.

BTW, Barry, who was the person in the press box that caught that foul ball and then kindly tossed it down to some fans below?

I'm gonna miss RFK. She's rough around the edges, and I live in fear of the overhead "New Era" ad falling from its corroding supports on us fans below, but she's got character that the new stadium with its glossy surfaces won't have for a long while.

Keep up the good work, Barry! First thing I did when I got home after the game was catch up on your postings. :)

Whiney, yes it is whining, when you windge IN HERE, where no one can do anything about it. You don,t like the food -- don't buy it. You don,t like the service, complain to Aramark, or Kasten -I hear he answers emails-.

I think the reason that people (myself included) are griping and complaining about the customer service at the stadium is because Stan Kasten keeps paying lip service to "customer service" being a major focus of the Washington Nationals organization, of which he is President.

If it is going to be one of the tenets of business, then they deserve no passes. Particularly for something as simple as food service at the stadium (which was truly awful) or season ticket management - things that literally hundreds of other sports franchises have gotten right for years. They're not inventing something new...this is well trodden ground.

The Guz misunderstanding was unfortunate but somewhat understandable, but the Nats WERE trailing big by the time he was unable to run out the grounder... and so far, Cristian has been a big bust for this club...he's making $4+M!! I'm sure that the fans that booed felt bad for booing once they realized he was injured. That said, I hope he recovers fast, and goes on to hit .300, steal 35 bases, and score 100 runs.